Pillar 01
WEBSITE
"The launch of a website isn't the important part — it's the tending that matters."
While the power of websites has dropped in recent years due to changes with AI and search, a site is still an essential part of your business and one of the few assets you can actually own — you'll never "own" your Facebook page.
In the end, solving problems is all that matters. As Donald Miller puts it in Marketing Made Simple, "your customers are not curious about you, they are curious about how you can solve their problem."
Step 01
The Myths
"I can just pick a template."
You can, but content comes first. One client paid a firm for a beautiful design, then had to make their content worse to fit it.
"I don't have time to build a new website."
You may not need a new site — you may just need to work on the one you have. Update the team page, publish some news, and the "need" often disappears.
"My website is finished."
Think garden, not billboard. A billboard is static and either works or doesn't. A garden grows more valuable over time through small improvements.
"I have social media, so I don't need a website."
A following can disappear overnight — bans, acquisitions, shifting trends. Your website is solid ground that belongs to you.
Step 02
The Problems
Too self-centered
If your homepage leads with "help us celebrate our 20th anniversary," you've missed the mark. If a competitor leads with how they solve the visitor's problem, you just lost.
Unclear
StoryBrand's "grunt test": visitors should instantly answer what you offer, how it makes their life better, and what they do to buy it.
Too chaotic
Animation should serve impact, focus, or interaction. Beyond that it's noise. "It's a mistake to sacrifice clarity on the altar of distinction."
Devoid of humanity
The web is flooded with over-optimized funnels. Clarity and restraint signal confidence to the people who find you.
Valueless
Ask why anyone would visit your site instead of the thousands of others. Past a point, chasing 2% faster load times beats out producing content people love.
Ignored
Contact forms silently break, security warnings appear, content goes stale, and hacks hide in the back end. "Set it and forget it" rarely works.
Step 03
The Framework
Have a goal for every page
Every page needs a purpose and a clear call to action. Great pages that leave visitors hanging at the bottom waste the work that got them there.
Don't just own your website; care for it
Security patches, fresh blog content, updated staff and services. A few focused minutes a week — but it never happens by accident.
What happens between redesigns matters
Overhaul every 3-5 years, but the ongoing tweaks make the difference. Measure, adjust, publish, keep learning.
Step 04
The Proof
Consistent attention beats occasional overhauls
A prospect wanted a new site: stale blog, missing new staff, months-old security patches. Nearly all of it could be fixed in an afternoon, for a fraction of the cost and a bigger impact.
If your website is working, how would you know?
A client declined post-launch maintenance. An update broke their contact form's back end; visitors submitted forms that went nowhere. Six months and hundreds of lost opportunities later, they noticed.
Optimizing for website traffic is dumb
After one rebuild consolidated a client's site, traffic dropped considerably while leads and revenue rose — exactly as planned. Chase better traffic, not more traffic.
Step 05
The Actions
- Spend 30 minutes today updating the site you already have.
- Do the quiet work: patches, backups, monitoring, accuracy.
- Pick one page and define what you want a visitor to do at the end of it.